This weekend is Biocamp, an informal community participatory unconference addressing biotechnology in Houston. Leading up to Biocamp over the course of the week several events bring together the members of the biotechnology, medical device, and chemical therapeutic communities. Warm up over the week by meeting some of these people in a relaxing atmosphere and end your week with the main event.

Biocamp is focused on Houston’s biotech sphere and all the shapes and sizes that make up that community. This is a monumental event for Houston to be holding one of the first Biocamps in the nation and we are looking forward to such a transformative event. Biocamp is a different conference than any other science conference because the primary goals are transparency, communication, openness and sharing between the community. Instead of being focused on delivering the current research progress in a specfic thrust, this conference is a state of the union sort, being a better forum for a review presentation on the state of research in a particular vein or an overview of the climate of biotechnology in light of the recent economic situation. To help maximize your Biocamp experience, here are some tips for attending the conference.

How to speak at Biocamp

This is the easiest part. no abstract submissions, no review panel. Simply arrive at the conference in the morning. Check out the presentation board which will have a grid with rooms and times. Put your name and presentation title into any open slot. Note, if you do not arrive early you may not have the opportunity to speak on a given topic. Remember that your topic should be accessible to the general public which in itself should exercise your communication skills.

What to expect at Biocamp

The attendees of the conference should be people in the biotech industry, academics, students, venture capitalists, angel investors, and science enthusiasts. While the talks at regular science conferences are usually hyper-specific, these talks will probably be bigger picture and survey the state of a field rather than dissect a current study. Expect the equivalent of a review paper in presentation form for the conference. Look for investors to give talks about what they’re promoting right now and what they’re looking for in the future.

What this conference could do for your career

If a standard career parth is starting to make you nervous, this conference is a good step towards an alternate path. Community members who usually attend unconferences of this sort are usually more open to change, welcome especially in a firm discipline such as science. Meeting people in your community who think alike could be the first step to launch a company, start a science non-profit, explore your educator interests, or meet people who are doing things that you might think are cool and innovative.

The Goals of Biocamp

Unconferences of this sort are a great way to discuss the arc or direction that a particular community is moving towards. With respect to the Houston biotech community, a meeting of the minds and sharing session will help everyone to discover the state of the community and unique challenges that we face in Houston and elsewhere.

Meetings of this sort can share knowledge that would otherwise be locked up in specific institutions, laboratories or with individuals. Those with a trend of openness and sharing will come away with great returns and those with an open mind will come away with a great deal learned about the community in general and the people who make up the community itself.

The full list of Bioweekend activities:

• Houston Startup Happy Hour and BioWeekend Kick-off Party the BioWeekend festivities kickoff at Saute Bistro with the help of Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center. April 2, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm at Saute Bistro, 2303 Richmond Ave.
• 6th Annual BioHouston Chili Cook-Off The BioHouston Chili Cook-Off is more than just chili – it brings the life science community together. BioHouston invites you to join us on April 3rd for the 6th annual day of fun in the sun, full of prizes and everyone’s favorite–CHILI! April 3, 2009 from 12pm to 5pmat BioHouston, 2555 Holly Hall St., Ste. 100
• BioCamp The main event. BioCamp Houston ’09 is an informal, participatory, unconference BarCamp event to bring college/graduate students, postgraduate trainees, junior academic faculty, entrepreneurs, would be entrepreneurs and inventors as well as, technology champions from the Greater Houston area together to learn and network. April 4, 2009 from 9am to 4pm at Keck Hall on Rice Campus, 6100 Main Street
• BioWeekend Closing Reception Immediately following BioCamp Houston ’09, the after party is at Vallhala right next door to the conference. Join us for a few drinks and a final adieu. April 4, 2009 from 4pm til 9pm at Vahalla in Keck Hall on Rice Campus

At that time I had an extreme amount of entitlement for my skills and what I was owed. When things went wrong I failed to look inward, instead, blame shifting or allowing this entitlement and a sense of animosity to blossom inside myself.

Now, not so angry, I attempt to keep an open mind in all situations and approach every situation as if I know nothing. I’ve found that learning is accelerated because my brain is set up to be a sponge rather than resisting or preparing to provide counterpoint at every step. People are more willing to help when they see an open nature and someone is interested in enrichment and personal growth.

Watching the flurry of activity at Sunday’s Bandcamp I couldn’t help but remember those days of watching Fight Club regularly. Looking at the cracks in the walls of Caroline Collective I was immediately transported to the Paper Street Soap Company where a crowd of Project Mayhem members were working towards something bigger. There was one big difference though; they were working to bring equality and success through destruction — we were working to build up and support each other through education, openness and a strong sense of community. And the entitlement and pretension characterised by some unsuccessful and angry bands wasn’t present, as each group was soaking up the information flying around the room like a sponge.

As I compared the activity from Paper Street Soap Company and Bandcamp: SXSW PREP I realized that each community had a greater sense of accomplishment and mission and each group worked fervently towards that common goal. But the difference was in the attitudes; you could witness the excitement and openness each band had to new ideas and setting up these systems. Infomation was volunteered and readily shared as idividual groups showed eachother what they had set up or explained how technology and an online presence had helped them in the past. At the end of the  two hour session, everyone felt better about their band’s position online and everyone realized the potential of putting together their toolbox to help  not only promote themselves but also EACH OTHER.

Most Bandcamps have ended with exhaustion, as the speakers give as much information about a particular topic as they can and the attendees’ heads fill with new ideas and new methods of promoting and running their careers. Something different happened this time as bands met each other and got excited about the prospects of showing themselves at SXSW. Not only did we not run over time but everyone was excited and energized at the end of the session. We selected the topic of April’s Bandcamp: COPYRIGHT and left for Coffee Groundz for post-Bandcamp discussion.

This Bandcamp was a reflection of the success of the event over the past several months. We are building something and it’s just as disruptive and passionate as Project Mayhem. The difference is that it’s not based in anger or entitlement; it’s based in hard work, education and dedication. The result will be a strong, united and educated Music Community that is self-sustained and self-supporting.

Check the twitter stream for Bandcamp: SXSW PREP by searching the hashtag: #bandcamph.

Thanks to @audioADD, @danjoyce and of course @dryvetyme for live tweeting the event.

Check out these bands on multiple digital outposts:

Bands in Attendance:

• Adam & Lena
• Benjamin Wesley
• B L A C K I E
• Davie Graves
• Days Drive
• Desmond Zavala
• Dizzy Pilot
• Espantapajaros
• Fat Tony
• Female Demand
• Giant Battle Monster
• Glasnost
• Golden Cities
• Insert Name Here
• Motion Turns It On
• Narreme
• Prairie Cadets
• Something Fierce
• Tambersauro
• Tax The Wolf
• The American Sharks
• The Bottom Four
• The Liquid Kitchen
• The Snake Charmers
• The Tontons
• The Western Civilization
• Wall With One Side
• Warblerpl
• Wayside Drive
• You (Genious)

Musicians come from all over the world to attend SXSW but most are from our home continent of North America. Looking at Figure 1, SXSW Showcases by Continent, you can see that North America has dominated SXSW over the past 5 years, greater than all other continents combined. Total showcases are down 6% this year (not shown in this graph) and from the graph we can see that this is due solely to the reduction in the number of showcases from North America. All remaining continents experienced an increase in number of music showcases at SXSW 2009. Looking at some of the more underrepresented continents, while Oceania and Asia show significantly lower numbers than Europe and North America, they have had a consistent presence at SXSW from 2005-2009. Additionally, it seems that SXSW is making an effort to incorporate a broader musical cornucopia because showcases from South America have increased every year; in fact, in 2009 there are more artists from South American than Australia. Finally, while Africa has been poorly represented at SXSW over the surveyed time the number of showcases in 2009 has more than doubled from 2008 numbers.

If artist showcases are only down for the North America, next we should look at which cities have been affected. First, let’s look at the 10 most populous US cities to answer this question. Those well versed in the musical communities of the United States will immediately comment that this type of analysis excludes valuable music communities like Seattle, Portland, Omaha and Athens. I agree. This data will be published in Part 2. Chew on this for now.

Figure 2 shows the number of showcases for the 10 most populous US cities. As expected, the number of showcases decreased in 2009 save for Phoenix and San Diego. San Diego based artist showcases increased by 2 in 2009, for a total of 15. Phoenix based artist showcases increased by 1 in 2009, for a total of 4. Los Angeles based artist showcases decreased by the lowest percentage, posting a 9% reduction in showcases from 2008 numbers. Houston based artists experienced the greatest percentage decrease in number of showcases, a 66% decrease from 2008 showcases, from 64 to 22. By numbers, New York based showcases reduced by the most, dropping from 263 showcases to 186 in 2009. As further illustration that population is not related to size or strength of a music community, San Jose, the tenth most populous US City has not had a showcase appearance from 2005-2009.

The significant drop in New York numbers might indicate that the US economy has had an effect on artists submitting or deciding to attend SXSW. Or it could mean that SXSW reduced the total number of available showcases. Without application data though we can’t arrive at a complete answer but we can use the available data to draw some conclusions. Let’s look at cities close to Austin to see if there was an effect of distance on number of showcases. In Figure 3, SXSW Showcases by Texas City, we see that every Texas city experienced a reduction in the number of showcases from 2008 to 2009. Austin had the largest reduction in number of showcases, 193 showcases in 2009 as compared to 239 showcases in 2008. Still, Austin showcases are almost an order of magnitude greater than the number of  any other large city’s showcases in Texas. Houston again has the largest percentage reduction, 66% less showcases than 2008. Dallas’ showcase numbers are erratic for the dates surveyed and San Antonio has always had low numbers of artist showcases.

In Figure 1 we saw that SXSW has included more showcases from previously underrepresented continents, it only makes sense that there would be a visible difference in the included genres. Over the past 5 years, SXSW Music has used 40 genre categories to classify artists. SXSW has shown consistent numbers in their standard genres of Alt Country, Avant/Experimental, Bluegrass, Blues, Country, DJ, Electronic, Hip Hop / Rap, Jazz, Latin Rock, Metal, Pop, Punk, R&B, Rock, Singer-Songwriter and World. In the past two years, additional genre categories have been added which feature non-traditional or previously underrepresented genres at SXSW. In 2008 genre categories Acoustic, Alternative, Americana, Celtic, Chantuese, Classical, Electronic/Dance, Folk, Funk, Latin, and Ska were added. In 2009 genres A Capella, Adult Contemporary, Cajun, Children’s Music, Jam Band, Soul and Tejano were added. Viewing specific genre categories explains the makeup of SXSW artists. There are greater than three times as many Rock acts as the next most popular categories of Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Hip Hop / Rap, Punk, and Avant/Experimental. The decline in popularity of certain genres at SXSW can be seen by looking at the steady decline of Alt Country and Bluegrass who have 35% and 70% less showcases, respectively, from 2005 numbers.

In Part 2, more US cities will be looked at to localize the largest decreases in showcases. For now, what are your impressions of all of this data? Are there any conclusions that should be included that were missed?

Please comment…

Methodology
Genre and Geography were surveyed for SXSW’s musical showcases from 2005-2009. This information was taken from the archived data at http://200x.sxsw.com and the current http://sxsw.com/music. Attempts were made to reduce errors due to redundant data, missing genre or geography. Missing information was ignored from geography or genre specific data but was included in total number of showcases or genres. The designation of “showcases” was used instead of “artists.” Applications to SXSW are made for one showcase but each showcase may include multiple individual artists, specifically in the Hip Hop genre. In most cases however, “showcase” is synonymous with “artist” and for simplification of data analysis, “showcase” was used instead of artist. Possible source of error: 1. Missing geographical or genre specific data. 2. SXSW may add new artists up to the point of the conference itself, this could shift percentages one way or another but unlikely that gross conclusions would be shifted as a result.